Cake decorating ideas

There’s nothing un-beautiful about a delicious homemade cake. But aesthetics have always been part of cake baking – icing spread in a pretty pattern, piping, sprinkles, fondant and so on. There are so many ways to decorate a cake gorgeously, and so many available tools that can turn your ideas into expert edible artwork!

Cake decorating ideas

The Rubik’s Cube Cake – looks like a Rubik’s Cube in mid-twist. As you might imagine, there are a lot of steps to it, but this cake decorating project is less challenging than you might think. The instructions here will guide even a total amateur through the right steps – and it has some helpful tips about what not to do. This one involves making and using fondant (optionally) to get the iced squares looking so smooth. You can use any flavor of cake for this one, though chocolate ganache is the best way to make the black between the squares, so you may want to choose a flavor that goes with that.

Beer mug and nuts cake – Perfect as a 21st birthday cake! This is a cake shaped like a beer mug full of beer with instructions for a pretty ambitious icing logo on the mug – the instructions guide you through some intricate piping work, but promise you’ll also get excellent results if you choose to just pipe some swirls on the mug. The beer foam is meringue, most everything has a chocolate flavor, and the whole thing sits on a newspaper tray. Awesome!

Blue jeans cake – This cake is a little simpler than the others, but still terrific. It looks like a pair of edible blue jeans with decorative trimming (that would be piping and/or candy). There are text instructions you can read at the link, and there’s also a helpful how-to video.

Yoda Head Cake – if you’re a tad artistic, the instructions here can help you make a cake that looks exactly like Yoda’s head sitting on a table. In fact, you could serve it on a silver platter, if you’re going for a sort of dark side theme at a party. Psst – the ears are made out of Rice Krispies. No, really.

Crop Circle Cake – the truth is out there, and it’s delicious. This cake is hilarious, but also really impressive. The “crops” are actually done by piping, believe it or not, covered in peanut butter icing in three different shades of gold to look like real wheat. I can’t get over just how much it really looks like a farmer driving his tractor around when he discovers alien crop circles in his crops. It’s a cake that tells a story. This cake decorating idea takes a lot of patience and detail work, but if you’re up for that, you’ll blow somebody’s mind!

Tie Cake for Dads – This one is presented as a Father’s Day cake, but it could also be for a dad’s birthday – and it would be ideal for celebrating any man’s promotion. This cake is shaped like a tie (hence the “men” theme) and covered in fondant for that smooth and perfect look. You can decorate the tie any way you like – she shows you a heart that says “Dad” and a skyline with a plane above it, but you could also just do tie stripes or a tie tack if you’re not confident of your abilities with artistic fondant and piping. Note: fondant is beautiful, but smooth icing can look a little shinier, like a real tie, and that would be a nice choice for this one, too.

Polka Dot Cake – this one is really simple. Just ice the cake very smoothly, then follow the instructions to pipe lovely polka dots onto it in another frosting color. This is perfect if you don’t have much time or aren’t ready for some of the more complicated projects listed here, because this gives you a beautiful, elegant cake all the same. You can get much more fancy with fondant polka dots, but honestly? I really like the three dimensions of a piping polka dot – there’s something very charming and kitschy about it. Fondant dots can’t cast a shadow or catch the light just so!

The Tank Cake – A cake in the shape of a tank. It uses a straw for the gun barrel, fondant for the camouflage-colored armor, and Oreos for the wheel (so awesome!). The instructions are slightly vague in places, but if you’ve worked with fondant much, you can figure it out pretty easily. This cake is, of course, perfect for anybody military in your life, or anyone who just likes tanks. You can make the cake any flavor you want.